Spices in the Secondary

I have a cider that I've recently moved over to a secondary.

OG: 1.051 and FG: 1.002

I'm thinking of adding some cinnamon before I prime and bottle. Can I add a stick or two straight in? Should I be concerned about microbes on the cinnamon bark or is there enough alcohol present that it shouldn't be an issue?


J.S.

ps: I've learned so much from reading this forum. Thanks to everyone for the advice you've contributed over the years.

If you added it right before bottling, I don't know how much flavor you would really get. Personally, I use ground cinnamon, because for me, its easier to judge how much to put in the batch.

From what I've gathered, submersing the sticks in vodka should sanitize it, but you would need time to let it sit in the cider for it to extract a good amount of flavor.

Last fall I did 3 batches w/ Cinnamon. 2 long sticks in 3 gallons for 2 weeks in secondary was hardly noticeable. 4 sticks was better. 8 sticks was like cinnamon juice, still have 30 bottles of that laying around. Did not sanitize, read somewhere that cinnamon is naturally antimicrobial, not sure that is 100% correct.

I use stick cinnamon all the time. Yes, it is antiseptic. However, I found steeping the sticks for about 20 minutes before adding to secondary is a much more efficient way to get the flavor out of them. This current batch I tried steeping some ground Saigon cinnamon into the primary.....we'll see how that goes.